Sync Everything with EssentialPIM

I'm one of the 12 people who still have a PDA. I use it pretty often, jotting down quick notes in meetings and using it as my personal calendar. Since I don't have a smartphone, I keep all of...

I'm one of the 12 people who still have a PDA. I use it pretty often, jotting down quick notes in meetings and using it as my personal calendar. Since I don't have a smartphone, I keep all of my contacts and notes on my PDA. The trouble is that I have multiple calendars (work, personal, and a mashup of them both on Google Calendar), I have multiple contact lists on different computers, and frankly, I'm not in love with Palm Desktop (my PDA is a Tungsten T3)--I find it kind of clunky and unattractive. I thought I was doomed to using it until I found EssentialPIM, an application that allows you to sync any calendar with your PocketPC, Palm, or even iPod, and provides a sleek, attractive interface to boot. As soon as I installed it, I was in love.

I've used EssentialPIM in the past, when the application wasn't nearly as robust as the new version, but when the developers e-mailed to say there was a new version available, I had to give it a try. The download and install were easy enough, but one of the new features I noticed was that the layout had been redesigned to look and feel similar to Outlook 2003, which is a very good thing. The old interface was nice, but making the app work and feel like something I'm used to is a bonus.

The best thing about EssentialPIM is that it frees you from other personal information managers. I can manage all of my to-dos, contacts, and calendar through one application, and simply sync it up with other programs like Outlook (which I have to use in the office), and Palm Desktop (which has my to-dos), or Google Calendar (which has my personal calendar). Not having to log in to multiple services to organize my life is definitely a good thing, even if I like those services a lot. I can log into Google Calendar when I want to make a specific change or take advantage of a specific feature, and use Outlook to accept and make appointments with my colleagues, and then sync them all with EssentialPIM to keep them in one place. Then, with one more sync, my PDA has all of that data, and I can carry it with me knowing I'm not missing anything.

I have a Palm device, but that doesn't mean EssentialPIM will work only with Palm PDAs and smartphones. EssentialPIM supports Windows Mobile devices and smartphones, and even your iPod's calendar and contacts. You can export that data to be re-imported elsewhere, so I can use EssentialPIM on my work computer and then export the data in iCal format to take to my Mac. If you just want to make backups, you can export your data as vCard, HTML, RTF, CSV, and several other formats to store and import into other applications later. Because you can import and export so freely from so many other applications and services, EssentialPIM could very well replace all of the other calendars and contact/to-do managers you have, and still sync them with your portable device or smartphone.

You can download EssentialPIM Free or EssentialPIM Pro; the Pro version includes features like encryption of your data, multi-user access if you'd like several other people to be able to see your data, Outlook synchronization, Palm and Windows Mobile syncing, and all of the features that make EssentialPIM really special. The free version, while it's lacking those features, is still a great personal information manager, but the Pro version is the one I'd recommend. There's also a portable version of EssentialPIM that you can install on a flash drive and take from computer to computer, so even if you don't own a PDA or smartphone, you can turn your flash drive into a portable calendar and contact list of your own. The Pro version is $39.95, so give the free version a try to see if you like the interface before deciding the other features make it worth the money for you.